The Red Shoes, the singular fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger, is cinema’s quintessential backstage drama, as well as one
of the most glorious Technicolor feasts ever concocted for the screen.
Moira Shearer is a rising star ballerina torn between an idealistic
composer and a ruthless impresario intent on perfection. Featuring
outstanding performances, blazingly beautiful cinematography by Jack
Cardiff, Oscar-winning sets and music, and an unforgettable,
hallucinatory central dance sequence, this beloved classic, now
dazzlingly restored, stands as an enthralling tribute to the life of the
artist.

***

A
glorious Technicolor epic that influenced generations of filmmakers, artists,
and aspiring ballerinas, The Red Shoes intricately weaves backstage life with
the thrill of performance. A young ballerina (Moira Shearer) is torn between two
forces: the composer who loves her (Marius Goring), and the impresario
determined to fashion her into a great dancer (Anton Walbrook).

NOTE: These
Blu-ray captures were
taken directly from the
Blu-ray disc
and are linked to their 1920X1080 counterpart if you are interested
to see.

ADDITION: Carlotta - Region 'B'
Blu-ray (November 11'):
Carlotta in France have now released the Powell and Pressburger
masterpiece The Red Shoes via a
Blu-ray
package. The box itself is beautiful - a slim three-tiered digi-pak
inside a custom slipcase. Technically the image transfer and bitrate
roses above the ITV and shy of the Criterion

- but
from the same restoration - it looks equally as impressive. I can't
see any significant differences with the Region 'A' and suspect only
a very discerning eye would be able to. I think the Carlotta seems
far closer to the Criterion than the ITV - in terms of color
balance. If given the opportunity to see segments of all three -
without knowing the
Blu-ray production - I might only be able to
ring-fence the ITV with some color discrepancy (see David Hare's
comments below) - the Criterion and Carlotta are that close,
visually.

Like the other two
Blu-rays, Carlotta have opted for a linear PCM
audio track. They stick with the original mono and also offer a
lossless French DUB. I can identify no anomalies or weaknesses in
the sound rendering. Depth might be a notch below but I didn't do
direct samples to categorically state this as a certainty. It offers
optional French subtitles and although the menu does not give the
option of ordinal English and no subtitles - they can be removed
with the remote button.

Supplements (non-English have French subtitles) have
the same restoration discussion presented by Martin Scorsese which
is an option before playing the feature as well as selectable via
the extras menu. There is the 24-minute piece - "A Profile of The
Red Shoes" documentary - found on the ITV
Blu-ray - with collaborators close to The
Archers production remembering the release of " The Red Shoes"
and its international success. "Meet with Thelma Schoonmaker-Powell"
runs only 7-minutes with the widow of Michael Powell as she talks
about the fascination that still exists with the film to this very
day. "The Blazing Ballet" runs over 1/2 an hour and follows a
voyage, via slides ballet, with a principal dancer with The National
Opera of Paris and Mathias Auclair (Chief preservationist with the
Library-Museum of The Opera). There is also a trailer and Gallery
Photographs. It doesn't have the Ian Christie commentary (Criterion)
but it is nice to see some viable supplements.

So... this is a great
Blu-ray release. It has technical advantages
over the ITV - and is French-friendly (if required) - plus some
decent supplements and wonderful packaging. Actually for region 'B'ers
this usurps the ITV 1080P release. Personally, it was such a
pleasure to see The Red Shoes yet again. Great job Carlotta!

***

ADDITION: Criterion
Blu-ray (June 10'):
We all knew about the, digital, restoration - Scorsese - Cannes -
and anticipated the Criterion re-release of The Red Shoes ...
but in the new 1080P Blu-ray
format. ITV in the UK beat them to the punch in an excellent region
'B'-locked edition but it would be almost a full year later that a
Criterion package would become available to those region-locked to
'A', and the army of fans of both the distributor and the filmmaking
team of Powell and Pressburger. It's here, and expectantly,... it is
gorgeous.

I wasn't anticipating extensive differences between this and the
existing ITV transfer. I thought there would be more variance in the
two
Black NarcissusBlu-rays.
And, frankly, the differences are quite subtle. I believe it is in
the color representation - something so small that few people would
complain about but the Criterion seems slightly less red (this is
most notable in the skin tones - see Shearer with the heavy make-up
later captures) and maybe minutely more blue. In many sequences it
makes the ITV flesh tones more 'pink' and the Criterion more pale.
Does this make the Criterion more accurate? I'm unsure... but
looking at the technical stats the Criterion has more than a 50%
superior video bitrate with the feature taking up more than 13 Gig
of additional space. For most the color variances will be totally
imperceptible. The Criterion is, in small ways, more detailed and
has some desirable depth. Without re-iterating much of the accolades
of the ITV appearance as stated below - we can simply say that the
Criterion, both technically and being visually apparent, is the best
digital edition of one of the most ravishing looking films ever
made.

I thought that the ITV may be slightly horizontally stretched. It is
something I wouldn't have noticed without a side-by-side comparison
(or toggling back and forth between two Blu-ray
players - as I did). But upon further investigation this doesn't
appear to be true. There is a lot of parity between these two
editions - visually speaking - but we do give the edge to the
Criterion. This would be more prevalent the larger the system you
see this on - if you project more than 100" and are a serious fan of
the film - then you will probably notice more than someone with a
more modest HD TV.

Audio has no differences in the two lossless linear PCM tracks that
I could pick-up on. The Criterion is, more faithfully, 1.0 channel
to the ITV's 2.0 stereo and purists will want the former. What is
always amazing is the depth that the mono track can export. I'm
always flabbergasted at the richness. The two separate Dolby Digital
1.0 channel tracks on the Criterion represent the Ian Christie
commentary and the other is the audio recording of actor Jeremy
Irons reading excerpts from Powell and Pressburger’s novelization of
The Red Shoes which you may listen to as you watch the film.
The Criterion has optional English subtitles and the
Blu-ray disc is locked to region
'A'.

One other note, while I remember, - this Criterion took the longest
of any Blu-ray I
own to load on my
Oppo Digital BDP-83. It didn't require a firmware update so
I have no idea why.

'Stacked' seems appropriate to describe the supplements on the
Criterion - we get the 5-minute introductory restoration
demonstration with filmmaker Martin Scorsese showing many split
screen comparisons amongst discussion of the mold and color
breathing. As most know the restoration was a major challenge
undertaken in 2009 by the Film Foundation from the film's original
three-strip Technicolor negatives - supervised by the UCLA Film and
Television Archive. We get the same excellent audio commentary by
film historian Ian Christie, featuring interviews with stars Marius
Goring and Moira Shearer, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, composer
Brian Easdale, and Scorsese... plus the duplicated The “Red
Shoes” Sketches, an animated film of Hein Heckroth’s painted
storyboards, with the Red Shoes ballet as an alternate angle
as well as the interesting gallery of items from Scorsese’s personal
collection of The Red Shoes memorabilia and the rare
publicity stills and behind-the-scenes photos. Excerpts of the
aforementioned Jeremy Irons reading excerpts from Powell and
Pressburger’s novelization of The Red Shoes which was also
available on the 1999 DVD. New for Criterion is a Profile of “The
Red Shoes,” a documentary on the making of the film, featuring
interviews with members of the production team also found on the ITV Blu-ray
but here is in NTSC and in HD. I could have listened to Thelma
Schoonmaker Powell (Michael Powell’s widow) in the included
15-minute video interview from the 2009 Cannes Film Festival (also
on the ITV), in which she discusses Powell, the film, and the
restoration. We get a 2.5 minute theatrical trailer also in HD (as
are all video extras) and a 26-page liner notes booklet featuring an
essay by critic David Ehrenstein and a description of the
restoration by UCLA film archivist Robert Gitt.

This, along with
Black Narcissus, is another title that I feel every
cinephile HD enthusiast should have in his/her digital library. You
really don't need
Avatar but The Red Shoes is an absolute
essential. Film very rarely reaches this level of beauty and
timelessness. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this was the Blu-ray
of the Year 2010. It is totally deserving.

***

ADDITION: ITV DVD Blu-ray
July 09': Just to clarify a few things first - this Blu-ray
is indeed region 'B'-locked as verified by my Momitsu.

I've watched it once and will
get onto the extras this evening although quite a few seem duplicated
from the Carlton DVD including - "A Profile of The Red Shoes"
documentary (24:14) + "The Ballet of The Red Shoes" featurette
(15:23) but there is some new stuff that I will comment on at a later
date. I will refer to an opinion I greatly respect, David Hare from our
DVDBeaver ListServ:

"On that subject I've been watching the ITV Red Shoes
Blu-ray
- the photochemical restoration of this is a glory and a testamentary
labor of love by all involved. There are details that catch your eye
that I don't remember seeing since 35mm screenings decades ago - one
such is the scene of Vicki in Princess gown and turquoise tiara
proceeding up the overgrown star is at Monte Carlo to go to the
production meeting with Lermontov, in which Powell and Cardiff have
obviously used a huge reflector panel behind the camera to cast a spot
(within the actual daylight shooting conditions) just above Vicki's head
to "guide" her up these mysterious stairs to her destiny. Details like
this abound. The color blue in particular is extremely vibrant now and
the transfer conveys something like real IB inky blacks and a huge tonal
range of whites and grays. The three strip scanning has been meticulous
and there is no trace of Technicolor (uneven YCM strip) "pulsing", and
the image overall is spotless with not a visible scratch, tear, rip,
speck. A couple of shots - which both follow complicated opticals look
"soft" but return to sharpness with the next clean edit.

The ITV package, if you can call it that, is less than brilliant. Far
too few chapter stops for instance, and the ballet is only heralded by
the Titles Booklet, without a further chapter at the opening curtain.
And the disc itself begins with an atrocious "trailer" reel for some
VERY unrestored minor titles which would be of zero interest to Powell
and Pressburger fans. But the movie's the thing..."

I would tend to agree, in general, with most of what David has said at
this point, but will give further comments when I have 'lived' with the
Blu-ray
disc for a while (at least 1 more viewing).

From Steve in email: "Your
correspondent, David Hare refers to this latest restoration as a
photochemical restoration. They did try that, but it didn't work. That's
why it took so long and cost so much. They finally decided to do it
digitally. Digitising the original Technicolor negatives and the
soundtrack at a very high level of accuracy (bit rate), much higher than
that used by any Blu-ray or other HD system.

Thelma Schoonmaker has done a series of stills and short clips to show
the damage to the original negatives. There was mould growing on them!
They had also become mis-aligned as some of the three strips shrank at a
different rate in different parts. There were scratches and other
physical damage. The soundtrack has also developed a few hisses,
crackles and pops. One of Thelma's examples shows one of the best prints
that was previously available and then does a screen wipe to show the
same scene after the restoration.

I saw it when Martin Scorsese premièred it at Cannes and I've just seen
it again at the Bath Film Festival. It really is stunning. But I do
agree with what David says about the light from the reflectors now being
visible. I noticed it at Bath and it's not a thing I had ever noticed
before despite having seen the film many times. I have even seen the
nitrate print (shown with firemen standing by). But this new restoration
is far better than any of those."

NOTE:

I can concur with David in that the Dolby Digital 2
track audio is very slightly out of synch although the PCM track appears
to be fine.